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When i was growing up, i only knew of Clint Eastwood as being the man with the monkey from the Any Which Way movies and as Rowdy Yates from re-runs of Rawhide, and it wasn't until i got a bit older that i found out he was the Man With No Name in the famous Sergio Leone Dollars Trilogy and the veteran cop and partner of Charlie Sheen in The Rookie then one night my old man was watching a
Dirty Harry on late night TV and it looked cool but i couldn't get into it. I did prefer clint as a cowboy Than a cop. As Ive gotten older i have embraced Eastwood as law-enforcer and was pleasantly surprised when i sat down to watch The Gauntlet....
THE PLOT:
Eastwood plays Phoenix metro cop Ben Shockley who is given the job of picking up a Las Vegas hooker for a court appearance. A simple two hour round trip...So he thought, the stripper named Gus Malley, Gus short for Augustina, is to testify against the mob and they'll stop at nothing to prevent Shockley from delivering her on time. They Rig a bomb to a car, rip apart a house with bullets, kill a police officer, chase them in a helicopter and blow the living shit out of a bus...but it seems Shockley has been set up by the police commissioner who is responsible for all the problems along the way. Gus was forced to perform sex acts while the gun of the commissioner is pointed at her. Shockley realises, from a little persuasion from Gus, that he is being set up, he decides to take the commissioner down.
THE CAST:
CLINT EASTWOOD as Ben Shockley
The moment Clint straddles a chopper bike, puts on his shades and revs the engine, the man becomes the coolest thing ever, people say McQueen was the coolest, bullshit, Eastwood is ten times cooler with his shoulder holster, white shirt, black tie and sarcastic attitude, he complete kicks ass in The Gauntlet. It's hard to believe this is the same man who has directed Mystic River, Million Dollar Baby, Changeling and Invictus, four films completely different from his 70s and 80s output. As Shockley, he plays an alcoholic cop who even though loves a tipple is still the best at what he does. I fucking love Eastwood....Nuff said...
SONDRA LOCKE as Gus Malley
Ive only ever seen Locke in Eastwood films, for me the first time was Bronco Billy and she was ok, she is fantastic in The Gauntlet, she's smart, sassy, loud mouthed, Foul Mouthed but she seems to really care about things. I was unaware of the problems she and Eastwood had in there 14 year relationship and while reading about it i was shocked, im not being biased because im an Eastwood fan but she seems like the high-maintenance kind of girl, but she was still great in this. She looks like actress Judy Greer from The Village, but more of crack whore....
PAT HINGLE as Josephson
The late Pat Hingle, who played commissioner Gordon in the Pre-Christian Bale Batman films, is woefully under used as Eastwoods former partner and the only one Clint can trust, but he's pretty good. I was only aware of him from the Batman films and Sam Raimi's western The Quick and The Dead ('95) and though he was good in this...
WILLIAM PRINCE as Commissioner Blakelock
I'd never heard of William Prince, but while looking over his filmography on IMDB discovered that this guy had done loads and only 1 year before The Gauntlet appeared in Alfred Hitchcock's final film FAMILY PLOT, but not only that he'd done loads. He's pretty good in this as the evil commissioner, setting up Clint and Sondra to save his own ass. and he meets a fitting end....
THE DIRECTION:
Clint is a great director and The Gauntlet was his 7th film as director and i believe this was his first time at a full modernized action film, he does really well and one scene in particular is the helicopter chase. Alot of the fight scenes are edited like action scenes are edit now, choppy, quick edits, shot hand held and they look good.
THE SOUNDTRACK:
Eastwood likes his music, especially Jazz and this film has a great jazz score by Jerry Fielding.
MY VERDICT:
I had work early the next day and decided i wasn't going to watch the entire thing brcause knowing my luck i wouldn't get in time, but that plan completely backfired because before i knew it, there was ten minuted till the end and it was quarter to three in the morning, the film grabbed me from the get-go and i just immersed my self into this film. it's a great if a teeny weeny bit flawed action film and one i intend on viewing again. Im gonna have to re-visit Dirty Harry now...
FILM: 9/10
Really good to see someone sticking up for this somewhat forgotten treasure from Eastwood. But, for me, the real joy is just how funny the film is. Eastwood the director seems to leave Eastwood the actor constantly bewildered, like a buffoon surrounded by mounting chaos, whose only maxim is that he "gets the job done."
ReplyDeleteAnd he does.
Eventually.
The chemistry between the two leads, a real-life couple at the time, is suitably spiky and filled with gloriously pithy and obscene one-liners, with Locke giving as good, if not better, than she gets and often leaving Eastwood looking like a fool. In fact, their dialogues seem like a proto-version of the exchanges in Martin Brest's Midnight Run.
One of the other great joys of The Gauntlet, is how well balanced everything is. A horrifyingly sober monologue by Loke, describing the events that brought her into this situation, is followed by Eastwood's hilarious rousting of a bunch of Bikers looking for a good time. And it's a testament to Eastwood's abilities as a director that he's able to juggle these elements with such ease and skill.
Made immediately after the superbly grim prairie tale that was The Outlaw Josey Wales, The Gauntlet finds Eastwood in a lighter more playful mood that he would try several other times -- The Rookie and Heartbreak Ridge are good examples -- but never recapture with the same level of skill.
On the anecdotal level, and by way of closing, Chris Petit, writing in Time Out, wondered if this was perhaps Eastwood's Annie Hall. And while that might sound odd, those who have seen both films will understand where he's coming from.
A great film.
wow great comment Beekeeper. The patter between Clint and Locke is really great and they do have obvious screen chemistry which also worked to the advantage in Sudden Impact, the darkest of the Dirty Harry films. Having never seen Annie Hall due to the fact that i don't like Woody Allen i cannot make the connection.
ReplyDeleteA great comedy drama worth checking out from mr. Eastwoods career is the often overlooked Pink Cadillac. also glad you mentioned Midnight Run as it's an almost perfect film in my eyes and a shame it was sort of remade as the bounty Hunter with Gerard Butler and rachel off of friends. Glad there is someone with a real grasp on cinema posting on here.
Agree with you on Pink Cadillac. The other great Eastwood jewel, at least for myself, is Bronco Billy, a brilliantly tragicomic, and dare I say it, slightly Altmanesque examination of the American dream. It's also another film in which Eastwood fearlessly, and quite relentlessly, seeks to deconstruct his stoicism; at one point even allowing himself to be painfully humiliated by a smalltown Sheriff. Well worth seeking out.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I think you should check out Annie Hall. I know a lot of people don't like Woody Allen, but I think you might be interested in how well made Annie Hall is from a cinematic stand-point. Allen and co-screenwriter Marshall Brickman were interested in breaking down the fourth wall, but still telling a story that was both comedic and dramatically real. In pursuit of this, they tell their tale with a total disregard for narrative; flashbacks are seen within flashbacks, fantasy's and imaginings appear out of nowhere, characters address the audience directly and walk through the rooms and events of their own pasts passing comment. At one point, the film even cuts into an animated sequence with a cartoon Woody adressing a Disney style wicked queen voiced by Diane Keaton. You really should see it. It has the sort of radicalism that Alain Resnais would have loved.
And then there's the fact that Annie Hall is a romantic comedy. And while those words might be enough to make any fan of the cinema sick, it's worth noting that this is a romantic comedy that anyone who has ever had a relationship will understand and recognise in its honesty and compassion for the failings of human beings to sometimes grasp the world around them.
See it. Give up 89 minutes of your life to this wonderful film.
your words have totally sold me Beekeeper, this has now made interested in the film, to be honest the only Woody Allen film i've ever really enjoyed was Sleeper, maybe because it has the surreal absurdest monty python-esq feel too it. but i'll definitely keep my eye out for Annie Hall.
ReplyDelete